Rights of Children in Pediatric Settings: A Survey of Attitudes

Abstract

This study compares the attitudes of parents and health care professionals toward the bill of rights for children in pediatric settings of the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI) and a locally developed ombudsman committee bill of rights. Parents (N = 64), attending physicians (N = 33), resident physicians (N = 17), nurses (N = 27), nonmedical professionals (N = 35), administrators (N = 18), and clerical workers (N = 17) were surveyed. Each person rated statements derived from the bills from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree." Analyses of variance indicated a high level of agreement overall for both bills by all groups; however, the local bill was significantly preferred. There were significant differences in agreement between the groups for the local bill and the two bills combined (an overall measure of attitudes about children's rights in pediatric settings). Attending physicians tended to agree significantly less than other groups. On the 32 individual items, attending or resident physicians were significantly lower in agreement than most other groups on 11 items, and nurses were lowest on one other. Disagreement was strongest on items concerning abortion or contraception, the child's right to privacy, the right to consent to care, and the right to have an immediate response from the physician in understandable language.